While I was freaking out over my feathers falling out baron-engel.deviantart.com/art... and upcoming exams, Carousel was busy planting our garden in my Equestria dreamscape.

She’d spent all winter reading about the subject and with my help we’d succeeded in getting the Steedebaker Garden Helper plow ready for spring planting.

At this point I’d like say a couple things.

One, I have not made any serious study of plows or farm equipment in general. This is just what my subconscious came up with, so there may be some big design flaws to it.

Two, when I do sketches from my dreams I often do not attempt to consciously correct any problems that may exist in the design. The point of this exercise is to remember what happened in the dream; I am not doing concept design.

The Garden Helper is designed so one pony can perform all the steps necessary for plowing a small family truck farm or a large garden. Fortunately the fine ponies at the Steedebaker plant in Detrot were kind enough to send us a new owners manual so we could get it up and running with some advice from Applejack.

The biggest problem we had was that the harness and tack were unusable. Fortunately with Rarity’s assistance Carousel had a brand new harness of black leather and brass before Winter Wrap up.

Carousel was so excited to see results of her labors and to finally get a chance to really use her earth pony talent to grow a garden. For the next few days after planting she was constantly going out and checking on the status of the garden. Then one morning she finally could see the first green shoots bursting up through the soft moist soil. She was so excited she ran back inside and brought us out to see them ourselves. She was as excited as a mother watching their foals perform in some school pageant. Applejack would be so proud of her!

I'm still rather surprised by her choice of making her own crops. From exotic dancer to farmer.

Well the way Carousel saw it was this. Applejack is best pony in Carousel's eyes. Applejack is an earth pony so is Carousel. Applejack grows things and since she is best pony Carousel should learn how to do it. Besides it can help the household save bits.

Based on what you've seen, just how does earth pony magic work? I imagine it manifests as an instinctive awareness of soil conditions and plant health, much like how pegasi seem to have that edge when sensing weather patterns. There's probably that extra bit of luck with plants that earth pony farmers seem to have when compared to pegasi and unicorns of similar training and skill, that "green hoof", as it were.

Yeah she somehow makes sweaty and hoofs covered in mud smexy, but then again we're soon going to discover that Carousel using her earth pony magic routinely has certain unexpected and interesting side effects.

Based on what you've seen, just how does earth pony magic work? I imagine it manifests as an instinctive awareness of soil conditions and plant health, much like how pegasi seem to have that edge when sensing weather patterns. There's probably that extra bit of luck with plants that earth pony farmers seem to have when compared to pegasi and unicorns of similar training and skill, that "green hoof", as it were.

It is everything that you described and a bit more. Carousel, Applejack and Big Mac have attempted to explain it to Petina and I but I still only have a vague understanding of principle. Not only do earth ponies have a comprehensive understand of the land and the plants that grow on it but they seem to be able connect directly with land.

It is not quite the Gaia principal but there does seem to be some kind of interaction that occurs between the land and the plants and animals that inhabit it. For earth ponies they can almost sense it the way many birds can detect the earth's magnetic field. Of which most earth ponies have a very good sense of direction. Almost as good as pegasus ponies.

These interactions between plants and land seem to help the plants draw the nutrients and water for the plant to grow. With earth ponies they can optimize this interactions to get best results with the least damage to land. In return the land seems to reward the earth ponies for protecting the land with consistent and stable harvests year over year.

While earth ponies don't necessarily consider the land to be sentient, the land does seem to have memory of sorts. It seems to recognize specific earth ponies and families that carefully cultivate the land over generations develop a stronger and stronger bond to the land. That is one of the reasons why Applejack was able to defeat the Deception. One, the land seemed to instinctively recognize the Deception as being a mortal threat and threw its strength behind AJ in the final battle. Effectively selecting her to act as its champion by proxy in the fight. Two, because the final battle occurred specifically on Sweet Apple Acres the contract between the Apple family was at its strongest, and with AJ as its champion the land threw everything it could against the Deception.

Twilight admits that earth pony magic is probably one of the most understudied areas of pony magic since it works in such subtle ways and for centuries the unicorns have considered it unworthy of research. This is a mistake that Twilight is planning to correct if she has any say on the subject.

I love the idea of a self-guiding plough. Earth Ponies may be excellent agriculturalists, but most people don't stop and think "Wait, how does the draft animal do all that on their own?".

In our world of course, the farmer on the rear end of the old mouldboard isn't there for his health, but in Equestria it would make sense that a plough that didn't need a steering pony would be developed. Although I think it was your friend Catspaw who mentioned an 'old-fashioned' plough which need a secondary pony to keep the furrows straight. Which was also a neat idea.

I imagine that on the big farms steam-ploughing is coming into use. Ponies and Traction Engines! Yes please.

I think that bottom panel is going to having me smiling every time I see it for at least a few months. Carousel has such a great, child-like exuberance to her; through her eyes, everything in the world is full of wonder.

I'm a little more convinced every time I see her that I was right when I supposed a while ago that Petina brought her over to to help you get that same sense of magic, instead of the worry and looming dread that you had when you first arrived.

as an added thought, it's possible that in the same way people try to keep from swearing around children, the darker parts of of your subconscious will try to 'behave themselves' a bit better around Carousel.